Newcomers still need some work

By DAVE SOLOMON

STORRS -- There are three reasons for not going overboard on the 2000-01 University of Connecticut men's basketball team.

Khalid El-Amin.

Kevin Freeman.

Jake Voskuhl.

Amidst all the euphoria over Sweetness Butler and Mad Dog Selvie and Magic Brown, three newcomers with obvious basketball gifts from above, I can't get past reasons one through three.

In today's college basketball parity, UConn may be deserving of its preseason No. 14 ranking -- the talent and athletic playersare certainly there. But if you ask me if UConn was a better team when it faced Marathon Basketball one year ago, the answer is yes.

Its point guard was better;its center was better, andits power forward was the toughest starter ever to play for coach Jim Calhoun.

This UConn team, which defeated Marathon Basketball 100-87 in an exhibition game Wednesday night at Gampel Pavilion, has a greater upside -- if Caron Butler, the top-10 recruit from Wisconsin; if Johnny Selvie, the rugged transfer from Flint, Mich.; if Taliek Brown, the McDonald's All-America point guard from New York City, all run before they walk.

But that's much easier said than done.

El-Amins don't grow on trees.

And it showed Wednesday.

"We found some bad things out, and we found some good things out," said Calhoun, who was less cranky over the presidential election than I expected. "I was disappointed in the way certain guys played, pleased with some others,

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and some played good and bad. I think if we push the ball and get some of the younger guys to play defense, or asemblance of defense, we'll be a lot better team."

This is the first time in almost a decade that the Huskies go into the season with some uncertainty at the point guard spot. The last time was 1990-91 when Chris Smith, a natural 2-guard, moved to the point to replace Tate George. Smith was a great college shooting guard, but not a natural point guard.

Brown, who had 10 points and seven assists, took a clear step ahead of Marcus Cox, the starter against Marathon. But I'm always curious when the starting point guard position is up in the air eight days before the regular-season opener against Quinnipiac.

I liken it to a football coach insisting he has two great quarterbacks. Ninety-nine out of a 100 times it's a falsehood.

Over the past decade, we've been so spoiled with Doron Sheffer and Kevin Ollie and Ricky Moore and El-Amin, the only concern was who would play on the ball, and who would play off of it, in a two point-guard backcourt.

In the three weeks since practice began, Brown has shown he can be magic with the ball. And he was, at times, against Marathon, a team willing to run up and down the floor with the Huskies without much resistance. But to expect Brown to come right in and be Calhoun's head and heart on the court is asking for a tremendous lot.

It happened with El-Amin, and it's rare.

"I've said before, he (Brown) won't be Khalid. He's not the same kind of player,"Calhoun said. "But what he does is accelerate the pace on both ends of the court. He picks you up fullcourt and really gets into you."

Point guard in UConn's system is as much based on intangibles as talent, and who can say with certainty where Brown fits in that dimension? If he proves to have that added characteristic, as a lot of people suspect, UConn will take a quantum leap.

And do you think Voskuhl won't be missed in the middle? Souleymane Wane has superior offensive skill, but UConn's center better represent defensive toughness, or he'll be on the bench, scratched for Plan B.

The loss of Freeman is harder to define in terms of scoring or rebounding, because Freeman was brilliant in neither. But is there anyone on this current team that you can point to right now you as the heart and soul of the team? Name this year's warrior. Selvie (13 points, eight rebounds)? He's got the makeup for it, but he last played at a junior college, so he'll have to prove it.

Senior point guard Albert Mouring -- who lit up the scoreboard with 29 points on 10 of 12 shooting (6 of 6 from 3-point range) Wednesday night -- will give the Huskies plenty of shooting and finesse on the perimeter. But AlbertMourings don't make UConn great. Defense and extraordinary toughness do. The only thing Calhoun likes less than defensive indifference is the Republican candidate for president.

This team certainly has the talent to surpass last year's on many levels, but on Nov. 9, 2000, my money's still on last year's team.

You don't summarily replace players of the caliber of El-Amin, Voskuhl and Freeman, no matter how much sweetness and magic you bring in. At least not right away.